[1352] Thus Leicester is charged with £100. 0s. 0d., with £99. 19s. 11d. and with £99. 19s. 4d.
[1353] In 8 Hen. II. several of the counties answer for about £10 less than had formerly been demanded from them.
[1354] The inclusion of the boroughs would have led to many difficulties. London, for example, though no account is taken of it in D. B., seems to have gelded for 1200 hides. (Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 14,252, f. 126.)
[1355] We omit the ‘ingeldable carucates’ which occur in some hidated counties. This may introduce a little caprice. If the jurors in one of these counties ascribe twelve carucates to a manor, we do not count them. If they had spoken of hides which never gelded, we should have counted them; and yet we may agree with Eyton that the two phrases would mean much the same thing. But this source of error or caprice is not very important in our present context. Thus we take Dorset. Eyton gives it 2321 hides and then by adding ‘quasi-hides’ brings up the number to 2650. The difference between these two figures is not large when regarded from the point that we are occupying. I have thought that the difficulty would be better met by the warning that Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Devon contain considerable stretches of unhidated royal demesne, than by my reckoning as hides what Eyton called ‘quasi-hides.’ In the case of Dorset, Somerset and Stafford I have placed Eyton’s figures below my own and signed them with the letter E. I know full well that his are much more accurate than mine. He probably gave to each county that he examined more months than I have given weeks to the whole of England. In comparing our results, it should be remembered that, at least in Staffordshire, he dealt with the county boundary in a manner which, in my ignorance, I dare not adopt.
[1356] My calculations about Leicestershire are more than usually rough, owing to the appearance of the curious ‘hide’ or ‘hundred’ or whatever it is. See on the one hand Stevenson, E. H. R. v. 95, and on the other Round, Feudal England, 82. Whether this unit contained 12 or 18 carucates is not of very great importance to us at the moment. But there are other difficulties in Leicestershire. In Cornwall I was compelled to make an assumption as to the peculiar ager or acra of that county; but no reasonable theory about this matter would seriously affect the number of Cornwall’s hides.
[1357] The usual formula is: ‘Tunc se defendit pro a hidis, modo pro a´.’ We place a in Col. IV., a´ in Col. V.
[1358] The usual formula is: ‘T. R. E. geldabat pro a hidis; ibi tamen sunt a´ hidae.’ We place a in Col. IV. and a´ in Col. V.; and we shall argue hereafter, with some hesitation, that the taxation of this county has been increased under William.
[1359] The words Terra est are written and are followed by a blank space. Many instances in Kent and Sussex.
[1360] On the other hand, when I find a statement about B and none about C, I do not assume that C = B; on the contrary, I read the entry to mean that C = 0. In other words, it is very possible that there should be teamlands without teams; but I do not think that for Domesday’s purposes there can be teams (i.e. teams at work) without land that is being ploughed, though it is true that often, and in some counties habitually, C will be slightly greater than B.